Job Discussion Forums

[ESLTH]

I work in a language center where all lesson planning, test marking and other administrative work is unpaid. I'm curious whether it's the same for all ESL teachers. At my school twenty teaching hours is considered full-time and the other 20 hours of prep/admin is unpaid. I've seen plenty of job ads stating 35-40 hours a week which suggests that time for marking etc is built in. I've only worked at one school in one country so I'd really appreciate hearing what the norm is for other places.

[spiral78]

I think a lot depends on the type of school (and your qualifications, which matter when applying for 'better' schools).

I and my colleagues have full-time contracts, and of course planning and marking is included in the overall job description. This is very typical in many situations - but with basic quals (BA + CELTA or equivalent), full-time contracts at schools with 'better' packages are more difficult to come by.

[Shroob]

I echo what Spiral said.

My jobs have always been salaried whereby planning/marking is part of the job description. Though, thankfully, non have never required 'office hours'. The employers trusted the teachers to do the work required and didn't need to be sat in an office for a certain amount of time - things like that take as long as they take.

[rtm]

[bansheebeat]

I get paid a monthly salary and planning/marking are included in that.

[ESLTH]

Thanks very much for the replies. My employer only pays for classroom hours regardless of whether the teacher is full or part time. It sounds like a salaried job is the key. I have three years teaching experience but only a CELTA and BA. As far as I know, there are only two schools in my city that offer salaries and, of course, those positions are in high demand. I'm certain my lessons would be better if the planning time was included. I also rather like the idea of having office hours where I could help individual students since that's impossible with only a few minutes between classes.

[HLJHLJ]

I've never been explicitly paid for prep on an hourly contract, but I've always considered it to be paid implicitly. Prep and marking are part of the job and I know roughly how much of each I will need for each type of class. I factor that in when I decide whether or not to take the work in the same way I take travel time into consideration. For example, an advanced academic writing class will need a lot of marking time so they will have to pay a higher rate for it to be worth my while compared to say a pre int conversation class. If it's a flat rate for a mixed bag of classes I ask a lot of questions about the likely mix of classes and I make my expectations regarding prep and marking time clear. If I'm not happy with the situation later on I'll refer them back to those conversations and remind them what we agreed. If nothing changed I would walk, the same as I would with any other breach of contract, though that's never happened.

[hollysuel]

I've never been paid for planning and I had the rare job (in Finland) that did pay us for marking tests as well as writing reports at the end of the course. As many have already said, most of the jobs I've held, though, included prep and marking as part of the salary.

[VietCanada]

I will do it if I'm on salary and the salary is appropriate for the hours I have to put in. I will not do it on an hourly contact time wage.

That's my official response. On my own time I do what I feel I need to to improve as a teacher.

[Teacher in Rome]

I work freelance, so my hourly rate includes everything - lesson planning, delivery and marking. I don't add on extras, and I often buy my own books if it's a coursebook-led class (so at least I can annotate them or deface as I please!)

It makes sense to charge different amounts depending on type of class - if you can, which is not always the case in Italy.

[teacheratlarge]

We're fortunate in Japan, most textbooks can be obtained for free as samples for uni teaching.

As for prep and marking, it's always a consideration when designing assignments/tests depending on the class size.